1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a karaoke apparatus for medley playback capable of successively playing highlight portions of a plurality of songs, and more particularly to a karaoke apparatus for medley playback which plays karaoke music utilizing playback information including control information according to MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) standard.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There is known a karaoke apparatus which reads out information from Compact Disk, Laser Video Disk or the like and plays instrumental music as an accompaniment for a singer. In addition, there is known a MIDI karaoke apparatus which stores playback information including MIDI sound source control information according to MIDI standard, and controls the MIDI sound source to play a so-called karaoke music. The MIDI standard is a rule for interchanging information between musical instruments such as a synthesizer, an electric piano or the like. The above karaoke apparatus plays various kind of songs, and recently many people sing so-called "medley (omnibus) karaoke song". The medley karaoke song is a medley of some portions of a plurality of songs. Highlight portions of a plurality of songs, including popular phrases or melodies and lasting for about 30 to 60 seconds, are played in succession to form one medley karaoke song. Conventionally, such medley karaoke songs are produced by a professional producer in consideration of genre or composer of the songs and recorded in disk recording media or the like to be put on the market. Accordingly, the combination of musical portions of such a medley karaoke song depends upon the producer's selection and user cannot alter the combination to make a medley of his or her favorite songs. In view of this, it is desired to make a medley of user's favorite songs regardless of the genre or composer of the songs.